Prominent climate scientist to speak at UH Manoa

Dr. Wallace S. Broecker, the scientist who coined the term "global warming," will give a special oceanography public lecture, "What Should We Do About Fossil Fuel CO2?"on Thursday, May 7. The event will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the UH Mānoa Architecture Building Auditorium, room 205.

Broecker is the Newberry Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. The lecture is sponsored by the UH Mānoa Department of Oceanography, the Joint Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research, and the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.

For more than 50 years, Broecker has studied the earth‘s climate and the natural systems that regulate the climate. In 1975, he published a paper in the journal Science, "Climate Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?" It was the first scientific use of the term to describe the effects that carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping gases could have on the planet.

In 2008, with journalist Robert Kunzig, Broecker wrote the book, Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal about the Current Threat—and How to Counter It, which will be available for purchase and signing at the May 7 lecture.